1175: Adjunct-Order Feb 26, 2018
Much like there is an order to how adjectives are used based upon what they connote—e.g. size comes before shape—there is an order to adjuncts in certain languages as well. This is somewhat more complicated since adjectives that do not indicate case tend to be fixed to the noun, but adjuncts are not as fixed. It is why in English, one can say
"yesterday, I helped the rude customer" or
"I helped the rude customer yesterday"
but the 'rude' cannot be moved throughout the sentence. Nevertheless, in some languages like German, and to a lesser extent English, will arrange their adjuncts by what they mean. In German, the order is: time, cause, mood, and location; these can be thought to answer the questions "When? Why? How? Where?". All of this, however, for German adjuncts or English adjectives alike can be subverted if the speaker is attempting to emphasize one element or another. This is true of many things, because the more abnormal something appears, the more focus it will get; this extra attention is also true of whatever is at the beginning of a statement.
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"yesterday, I helped the rude customer" or
"I helped the rude customer yesterday"
but the 'rude' cannot be moved throughout the sentence. Nevertheless, in some languages like German, and to a lesser extent English, will arrange their adjuncts by what they mean. In German, the order is: time, cause, mood, and location; these can be thought to answer the questions "When? Why? How? Where?". All of this, however, for German adjuncts or English adjectives alike can be subverted if the speaker is attempting to emphasize one element or another. This is true of many things, because the more abnormal something appears, the more focus it will get; this extra attention is also true of whatever is at the beginning of a statement.
Watch the new Word Facts Video: https://youtu.be/2YWfhZLMhrQ
Support Word Facts on Patreon for new things and to help make the content better: https://www.patreon.com/wordfacts.